nd there is less grass. The other river is pretty shallow
and gets badly choked up at this season."

"That's so," replied the captain, "but I'd like to know who told
you."

It took the rest of the day to reach the Everglades. There were
narrow streams so crooked that the _Irene_ had to be poled around
the sharp corners, broad, shallow rivers, so choked with eel and
manatee-grass that every five minutes one of the boys went overboard
to clear the clogged propeller, and twisting creeks, through which
the water of the Everglades poured so swiftly, that to make headway
and avoid snags kept the captain busy at the wheel and the boys
fending off from the banks with oars. Sometimes for miles the
channel was clear; and while the captain stood at the wheel the rest
of the exploring family sat upon the cabin roof and chattered like
children about the turtle and terrapin heads that dotted the
surface, the leaping young tarpon, grave old alligators, shy otters,
and birds that flew from the trees or soared overhead.

The sensitive Tom resented Dick's neglect, and was seen sitting on
the after end of the cabin, in front of the wheel, making friends
with the captain. Every few minutes Tom put out a paw and rested it
on the captain's hand as it rolled the wheel. Then Tom would look up
in his face, and finally rubbed his cheek on the captain's hand, and
after that became his shadow. That night Tom abandoned his sleeping
place beside Dick's bunk and turned in with the captain. Dick was a
little annoyed at first, but his conscience told him that he had
neglected Tom, and had himself to blame.

When the anchor was dropped, the _Irene_ rested in a solid mass of
lily pads, with her bowsprit extending over the border of the
Everglades, which stretched out eastward, a great, grassy,
overflowed meadow, dotted with keys, to the horizon. A slough of
clear water, deep enough to float the little power-boat, zigzagged
out into the Glades, and the captain, with Mr. Barstow, Molly and
Dick in the craft, followed it for more than a mile. There was
water enough over the light grass of the Glades to float the skiff,
which Ned poled through a carpet of white pond-lilies, that here and
there covered the surface. Many little grassy mounds showed where an
alligator had his cave. From one of them an alligator slid out and
started across the Glades at full speed. Ned was soon on his trail,
poling like mad. He was nearly up to the reptile when it swung
ar